INFLAMMATORY AFFECTIONS 299 



through, the wall. It may thus occur from excessive 

 hammering of the foot, from violent kicking against a 

 wall or the stable fittings, and from the injury to the coronet 

 known as ' tread.' It may also occur as a sequel to com- 

 plicated sand-crack, and to chronic corn. 



That fissures in the wall are undoubtedly a cause has 

 been placed on record by the late Professor Walley, who 

 noticed the appearance of these horny growths following 

 upon the operation of grooving the wall.* 



This gentleman had a large Clydesdale horse under his 

 care for a bad sand-crack in front of the near hind-foot, 

 and, as the lameness was extreme, he adopted his usual 

 method of treatment — viz., rest, fomentations, poulticing, 

 and the making of the V -shaped section through the wall, 

 and subsequently the application of an appropriate bar shoe 

 to the foot, and repeated blisters to the coronet. In a 

 short time the lameness passed off, and the horse was put 

 to work. A few days later the animal met with an accident, 

 and was killed. 



On examining a section of the hoof it was found that 

 a vertical horny ridge corresponding to the external fissure 

 had been formed on the internal surface of the wall, and 

 that a well-marked cicatrix extended upwards through the 

 structure of the hoof at the part forming the cutigeral 

 groove; furthermore, a similar ingrowth had been taking 

 place in the line of the oblique incisions made for the relief 

 of the sand-crack. 



This case has an important bearing on the operation of 

 grooving the wall, which operation we have several times in 

 this work advocated for the relief of other diseases. It 

 teaches us that the incisions should not be carried so com- 

 pletely through the horn as to interfere with and irritate the 

 sensitive laminae, and so set up the chronic inflammatory 

 condition leading to hyperthrophy of the horn. 



From the position on the os pedis of the indentation made 

 in it by the keraphyllocele (see Fig. 133) it has been argued 



* Journal of Comparative Pathology and Therapeutics, vol. iii., 

 p. 170. 



